Carroll County USDA Service Center - September 20, 2024
Office News - Carroll County FSA staff will be attending Farm Programs Training Monday-Wednesday, September 23-25, 2024. The staff will return and resume normal office hours on Thursday, September 26, 2024. PA Carole Hill will be teleworking and attending the training virtually; she can be reached by phone or email, if necessary. (She has doctor appointments on Monday afternoon and Wednesday morning.)
2024 COC Election - The candidates for this year's election in LAA1 (southern Carroll County) are D. Mark Savage and Cody Allen. Watch for more information in next month's Bulletin.
September Interest Rates
Dairy Margin Coverage - The margin for July is $12.33 per cwt, so no payments were triggered. Thanks for paying all premium balances timely!
USDA to Begin Accepting Applications for Expanded Emergency Livestock Assistance Program to Help Dairy Producers Offset Milk Loss Due to H5N1
ARCPLC Producers - Have you filed your annual gross income certification form for 2023? If crop year 2023 ARC-CO or PLC payments are triggered in October, your payment could be delayed or forfeited if you don't have this form on file. Did you add a farm(s) to your operation in 2023? Double-check that if the farm has base acres that you've signed the ARCPLC contract. Deadline to sign is September 30.
2025 NAP Coverage for Forage/Pasture - If you would like Noninsured Assistance Program coverage for 2025 on your grass and grass mixes hay or pasture, please visit the office by the application deadline of September 30 and pay the application fee of $325 per crop.* (Coverage for alfalfa and/or alfalfa mixes is handled by crop insurance - please visit here to find and contact an agent.)
Organic Certification Cost Share Program (OCCSP) - Applications accepted through October 31 for eligible expenses incurred from October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2024.
USDA Announces October Meeting of the Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee
National Farmers Union and USDA Announce Agreement to Strengthen Farm Service Agency County-Level Operations
ICYMI in the September 13 Delmarva Farmer - Keeping the Farm - Farm Storage and FSA
Expiring Extended 2018 Farm Bill - Just a reminder that the Extension ends on September 30 and without a new extension or a new Farm Bill, program signups, especially for CRP/CREP after September 30 are unknown and not permissible.
Important Dates/Deadlines...
September 30 - 2025 NAP coverage signup deadline for grass forage/pasture. October 14 - Office closed (Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day) October 31 - OCCS Program application deadline
Check with NRCS concerning their program deadlines.
Check with RMA concerning their deadlines for insurance coverage and loss claims.
In This Issue:
This is the tentative October program payment schedule (always subject to change)...
CRP/CREP contracts from 2008 Farm Bill and prior - October 2
2023 ARC-CO and PLC payments, if triggered - October 7
CRP/CREP contracts from 2014 Farm Bill and forward - October 9
The U.S. Government must be open and funded. As per statute, once funds have been released for payments, FSA has 30 days to process each payment, meaning payments could hit your bank account in November and are considered timely.
|
Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) program payments are issued electronically into your bank account. In order to receive timely payments, you need to notify your FSA and/or NRCS servicing office if you close your account or if your bank information is changed for any reason (such as your financial institution merging or being purchased). Payments can be delayed if FSA and/or NRCS is not notified of changes to account and bank routing numbers. ( Please use Form SF-3881 for FSA and Form SF-1199A for NRCS; please include a voided check.)
For some programs, payments are not made until the following year. For example, payments for crop year 2024 through the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage program aren’t paid until 2025. If the bank account was closed due to the death of an individual or dissolution of an entity or partnership before the payment was issued, please notify your local FSA/NRCS office as soon as possible to claim your payment.
Top of page
All Carroll County producers of grass/grass mixes of forage hay and/or pasture who would like to obtain the equivalent of catastrophic loss level crop insurance (for losses due to natural disaster 50% or greater) are reminded of the application deadline of September 30, 2024 for crop year 2025 crops. There is an administrative fee of $325 per crop,*not to exceed $825 per county and $1950 per producer. The administrative fee must be paid at the time of application. Buy-up coverage is also available, with premiums due by a later date. (As mentioned above, alfalfa and alfalfa mixes have coverage available through crop insurance and you should discuss with a crop insurance agent.) Coverage could be required for the Farm Storage Facility Program and certain disaster programs, such as Emergency Relief Program (ERP/ERP 2022).
The acreage report would need to be submitted to the county office by July 15, 2025, showing the physical location of the acreage, the type, and variety of each crop, the producer's share, and the names of all producers with a share in the crop(s).
For more information, visit fsa.usda.gov/nap or call the Carroll County FSA Office at 410-848-2780 x 2.
|
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is announcing the launch of the Debt Consolidation Tool, an innovative online tool available through farmers.gov that allows agricultural producers to enter their farm operating debt and evaluate the potential savings that might be provided by obtaining a debt consolidation loan with USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) or a local lender.
“Providing producers with options to structure their debt in a manner that affords them every opportunity to meet the goals of their agricultural operation is the best way to ensure the nation’s farmers and ranchers build financial equity and resilience,” said FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux.
A debt consolidation loan is a new loan used to pay off other existing operating loans or lines of credit that might have unreasonable rates and terms. By combining multiple eligible debts into a single, larger loan, borrowers may obtain more favorable payment terms such as a lower interest rate or lower payments. Consolidating debt may also provide farmers and ranchers additional cash flow flexibilities.
The Debt Consolidation Tool is a significant addition to FSA’s suite of improvements designed to modernize its Farm Loan Programs. The tool enhances customer service and increases opportunities for farmers and ranchers to achieve financial viability by helping them identify potential savings that could be reinvested in their farming and ranching operation, retirement accounts, or college savings accounts.
Producers can access the Debt Consolidation Tool by visiting farmers.gov/debt-consolidation-tool. The tool is built to run on modern browsers including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or the Safari browser. Producers do not need to create a farmers.gov account or access the authenticated customer portal to use the tool.
Additional Farm Loan Programs Improvements
FSA recently announced significant changes to Farm Loan Programs through the Enhancing Program Access and Delivery for Farm Loans rule. These policy changes, to take effect September 25, 2024, are designed to better assist borrowers to make strategic investments in the enhancement or expansion of their agricultural operations.
FSA also has a significant initiative underway to streamline and automate the Farm Loan Program customer-facing business process. For the over 26,000 producers who submit a direct loan application annually, FSA has made several impactful improvements including:
- The Loan Assistance Tool that provides customers with an interactive online, step-by-step guide to identifying the direct loan products that may be a fit for their business needs and to understanding the application process.
- The Online Loan Application, an interactive, guided application that is paperless and provides helpful features including an electronic signature option, the ability to attach supporting documents such as tax returns, complete a balance sheet, and build a farm operating plan.
- An online direct loan repayment feature that relieves borrowers from the necessity of calling, mailing, or visiting a local USDA Service Center to pay a loan installment.
- A simplified direct loan paper application, reduced from 29 pages to 13 pages.
- A new educational hub with farm loan resources and videos.
USDA encourages producers to reach out to their local FSA farm loan staff to ensure they fully understand the wide range of loan and servicing options available to assist with starting, expanding, or maintaining their agricultural operation. To conduct business with FSA, please contact your local USDA Service Center or the FSA farm loan staff at the Frederick County FSA Office - 301-662-1321 x 2.
|
Top of page
This Secretarial natural disaster designation allows the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) to extend much-needed emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans. Emergency loans can be used to meet various recovery needs including the replacement of essential items such as equipment or livestock, reorganization of a farming operation, or to refinance certain debts. FSA will review the loans based on the extent of losses, security available, and repayment ability.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, these counties suffered from a drought intensity value during the growing season of 1) D2 Drought-Severe for eight or more consecutive weeks or 2) D3 Drought-Extreme or D4 Drought-Exceptional.
Impacted Area: MARYLAND
Triggering Disaster: Drought beginning 7/23/2024
Application Deadline: 04/07/2025
Primary Counties Eligible: Frederick, Garrett, Washington
Contiguous Counties Also Eligible:
Maryland: Allegany, Carroll, Howard, Montgomery
Pennsylvania: Adams, Fayette, Franklin, Fulton, Somerset
Virginia: Loudoun
West Virginia: Berkeley, Grant, Jefferson, Mineral, Morgan, Preston
More Resources
On farmers.gov, the Disaster Assistance Discovery Tool, Disaster Assistance-at-a-Glance fact sheet, and Loan Assistance Tool can help you determine program or loan options. To file a Notice of Loss or to ask questions about available programs, contact your local USDA Service Center.
Carrie-Ann Houdeshell is a Grazing Land Co-Lead for the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP), an effort led by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to evaluate and inform voluntary conservation across the nation’s working lands. In this Ask the Expert, Carrie-Ann answers questions about recent findings on three key grazing land conservation practices, new resources to assist data-driven conservation decision making across the nation’s non-federal grazing land and federal rangeland, and NRCS programs and services to support ranchers and other land managers in pursuing voluntary conservation.
Let’s start with the basics: When we talk about “grazing land,” what is included?
Grazing land is a collective term that includes rangeland, pastureland, grazed forests, native and naturalized pasture, hayland, and grazed cropland. All 50 states have grazing land, and the national grazing land footprint is incredible – approximately 40 percent of all land across the United States. That includes more than 580 million acres of private land and more than 390 million acres of land managed by federal agencies.
Ranchers and other land managers use grazing land to feed and raise livestock, providing food and fiber for the United States and beyond. Through their stewardship, grazing land also delivers a suite of ecosystem services – like water conservation, wildlife habitat, and carbon sequestration – that benefit us all.
Read more about grazing lands.
|
Carroll County USDA Service Center
698 Corporate Center Court NRCS - Suite J, FSA - Suite K Westminster, MD 21157
Phone: 410-848-6696 FSA - Ext 2; NRCS - Ext 3 Fax: 855-401-6643 FSA, 855-432-9024 NRCS
|
| |
|
Farm Service Agency
Charles Bennett, Acting County Executive Director (CED) charles.bennett@usda.gov (Shared CED with Washington Co FSA)
Farm Service Agency - Farm Loan
Sarah Fogle, Farm Loan Manager (FLM) sarah.fogle@usda.gov Frederick County FSA Office Phone: 301-662-1321
|
Natural Resources Conservation Service
Samantha Cox, Acting District Conservationist
samantha.cox@usda.gov
|
|
FSA Program Analysts (PA)
Carole Hill
Patrick Ransom
Danielle Wilson
|
Carroll Soil Conservation District
Matt McMahon, District Manager
matt.mcmahon@md.nacdnet.net
|
|
FSA County Committee
Mike Harrison (LAA1), Chair
Evan Staley (LAA3), Vice-Chair
Jerry Frock (LAA2), Member
Susie Stonesifer Lawrence, Advisor
Next Meeting: December 10
|
|
|